


Deal

by edwardnashtons (freckledandspectacled), freckledandspectacled



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Fix-It, Love, M/M, Prison, Weddings, until thursday lmao
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-23
Updated: 2019-04-23
Packaged: 2020-01-25 15:16:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18577096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/freckledandspectacled/pseuds/edwardnashtons, https://archiveofourown.org/users/freckledandspectacled/pseuds/freckledandspectacled
Summary: Lucius Fox alerts Oswald to his imminent arrest. It changes everything.





	Deal

“It’s a bad idea,” Lucius said, looking over the arrest warrant.

“Oswald killed a woman in front of us, we can’t just let that go,” Jim said, taking the papers back and folding them. “He has to pay.”

“You mean Barbara can’t let it go,” Lucius said, his face completely still. Jim sputtered and looked away. 

“Oswald is going to jail for murder, Barbara had nothing to do with it,” Jim stated, and Lucius could see now that he actually believed it. 

“You’re choosing to prosecute the man who killed the lover of the mother of your child,” Lucius said. “That’s a mouthful.”

“I told him when it happened that he would pay for the things he did during the separation,” Jim said, convicted. “Now that day has come.”

“So, everyone else has your full pardon for the things they’ve done prior to reunification, aside from Oswald?” Lucius said. “You’re making a mistake.”

“Justice is never a mistake,” Jim declared, raising his chin in superiority. Lucius sighed.

“When it’s _equal_ ,” Lucius amended. “You don’t get to decide who walks away and who gets to pay. You’re the commissioner, not a vigilante. Either pardon the people who fought against Bane across the board, or face up to your own hypocrisy.” Jim stiffened, his jaw tightening as he glared. Lucius knew then that there was no talking him out of it. 

“I think we’re done here,” Jim said, gesturing to the exit. Lucius saw himself out.

***

Jim had wanted to go after Nygma as well, but there wasn’t a single crime he could charge him with that he wouldn’t be found innocent of. And as for the ones he was not innocent of, those would have also involved Jim’s wife. Lucius knew Edward wouldn’t take the news well. Which was why he broke the news to them before Jim made the arrest.

“He can’t do this!” Oswald raged. “After everything I did for this city, after everything I did to help him, this is how he repays me?”

“He can,” Edward said, unusually quiet. “And he will.”

“No, there has to be a way out of this!” Oswald said, spinning on his heel. “I’m not going to prison!”

“We need to leave,” Edward said, standing. “We have to leave Gotham.”

“Let me just say,” Lucius interjected, “If you’re considering going on the run, I’ll have to let Jim know.”

“Oh, what good are you, Foxy?” Edward said, throwing his hands up into the air.

“Darling,” Oswald said, taking hold of his arm, “You know I wouldn’t leave anyways.”

“I know,” Edward said softly, “I really hate that about you.” They shared a smile, and Lucius felt like he was very much intruding on something. 

“Can we beat this at trial?” Oswald asked, looking to Edward. He shook his head. 

“It’s their word against yours, and there were multiple witnesses,” Edward said. “You’ll be found guilty.”

“What if I get a pardon from the Mayor, use political pressure? We’re practically war heroes for this city!” Oswald exclaimed, grabbing both of Edward’s biceps now. Edward seemed unsure. 

“It’s worth a shot,” Lucius said. “Your sentence might not be that long, given that she was attempting to murder you at the time.”

“Self-defense doesn’t work very well when you’ve already killed someone,” Edward said, bitter. “It’s why I was convicted for Dougherty in addition to my _actual_ murders.”

“You stabbed him quite a bit,” Lucius pointed out. “Not that you left a body behind to confirm that.”

“He was a big guy!” Edward argued.

“We don’t have time for this,” Oswald said. “While that example is flawed, you’re right. I could be there for twenty years, for _life_. We need a plan in case the worst comes to pass.”

“I’ll get you out,” Edward promised, tears in his eyes. “Whatever it takes.”

“I was thinking something a little more legal,” Oswald said. “I know this is rushed, but given the circumstances…” He fell to one knee, and Edward gasped, covering his mouth with a hand.

“I’ve loved you for years, and I promise you that I’ll never stop. Edward Nygma, will you marry me?”

Edward sobbed and collapsed to his knees in front of Oswald, falling into his arms. Once again, Lucius felt very much out of his depth. 

“Yes,” Edward gasped, “Yes, Oswald, of course.”

“I think I should go…” Lucius said, beginning to back away. 

“Wait!” Edward exclaimed, pulling away from Oswald and wiping at his cheeks. “We’ll need a witness.”

“Oh, you’re doing this now?” Lucius said, utterly bewildered. 

“Jim could come through that door any second and ruin everything,” Edward said. “We’re doing this now.”

That was how Lucius found himself in a car with two criminal fiancés, on the way to City Hall to sign a marriage license. They waited in line like everyone else, hands clasped together. The City had its own witnesses, but Lucius put his name down as well, rather than having it be a list of strangers. 

“We’ll drop you off wherever,” Oswald said. “We’d like some time… alone.”

“I’ll call a cab,” Lucius said, wanting to be far, far away from their post-wedding interactions. 

“Great,” Edward said, grabbing onto Oswald’s arm. “Let’s go home.” Lucius watched them go, glad that even should the worst come to pass, at least they had this.

***

At the trial Edward’s ring finger was devoid of one, and he was dressed in an understated grey suit with a green tie, his hair in a neat and more natural style. It was clear he was trying to blend in while still being able to support Oswald, given that their partnership would only be more damning for him. Months later, as the trial was concluded, Lucius served as a character witness, describing what Oswald had done to defend the city during the government incursion. Jim had glared from behind the prosecution, but there was nothing he could do to silence him.

In the end, he wondered if it even made a difference. As expected, Oswald was found guilty. Edward held strong on the bench beside him as the verdict came down. 

Then the sentence was delivered, and Edward let loose the most heart-wrenching _wail_ Lucius had ever heard, his hair standing up on the back of his neck. Edward rushed the front of the room so quickly that the guards had no time to react, throwing himself over the bannister and into Oswald’s arms as he wept. 

“Order!” the judge cried, attempting to silence the commotion this caused. “Order!”

“Just give them a minute!” Lucius pled, addressing the judge. 

“Bailiff,” the judge said, “Remove that man.” Lucius held his hands out in front of him, realizing as the guard approached that she meant Edward. 

“Please,” Lucius said, “Show some compassion.” 

“If he does not release the prisoner this instant I will have him thrown in jail,” the judge declared. “I’ve been more than fair to Mr. Cobblepot in these proceedings.”

“Eddie, you have to let go,” Oswald coaxed, trying to loosen his hold. “It’s okay.”

“Oswald,” he sobbed, fingers digging into his suit jacket. 

“I’ll see you soon, baby,” Oswald said, prying his arms away, “But that can’t happen if you’re in jail.” Edward pulled away, far enough that he could cup Oswald’s face in his hands, kissing him desperately. Lucius’ heart broke to see it. He moved in, pulling Edward away from the divider when they parted so that he wouldn’t do anything rash while the bailiff removed Oswald. Edward watched as he was taken away.

“I love you!” Edward cried brokenly, and then the doors shut. A moment later Lucius found himself supporting Edward’s entire body weight, guiding him until he was sitting heavily on a bench. He let Edward cry until the next case began to file in. Reporters hounded them outside and were barely kept at bay by his glare, practically dragging Edward to his car. 

“Ed, I need your keys,” Lucius gently requested, taking them from him when he was finished fumbling to extract them. He opened the door for Edward and ushered him in, closing it behind him and getting into the driver’s seat. Edward had an apartment now, the library having been reclaimed by the city. Lucius parked on the street, passing Edward’s keys to him when he got out of the car. 

“I’ll find a cab,” Lucius said, patting his shoulder.

“Can you stay a while?” Edward asked, shuffling on his feet. “I… I don’t want to be alone.”

The entirety of the apartment was a mix of what few belongings they had. On the kitchen table there was a bouquet of roses, candles melted halfway down. Lucius felt a pang, realizing that this was the remains of their last dinner together. 

Oswald had been allowed to be free until sentencing, the judge being extremely lenient on him. Lucius didn’t see why not. Oswald would never leave Gotham, and he had proved that many times over. The apartment was an open space, though the lay-out was different to the one Lucius had visited before the manhunt for Galavan. The bed was un-made, and hanging on the back of a chair was a garment bag. Edward approached it, running his hand down the length of it.

“I didn’t want to get out of bed today,” Edward said. “I just wanted to lay with him forever and pretend we didn’t have to go.” Edward chuckled, zipping up the bag. 

“He told me he needed to start getting dressed, because he wasn’t going to spend his last day as a free man looking like he’d just rolled out of bed.” He was crying again, but it wasn’t the desperate, mournful crying of earlier. Lucius was at a loss for what to say, how to comfort him. He decided to talk procedure. He’d always found some comfort himself in thinking of what would happen next, how to move forward.

“I’ll contact the warden for you,” he said, “See what arrangements can be made.”

“Thank you, Lucius,” Edward said. “For everything.”

“I’m sorry it had to be this way,” he said. “I thought you two were… good for each other. I had hoped you both might want to return to a more… conventional lifestyle.” Edward glanced up, raising his brows.

“Not like that. We’re rebuilding Wayne Enterprises. I’ve been tasked with hiring brilliant minds to get WayneTech’s projects restarted,” Lucius explained. 

“And you want _me_ ,” Edward deadpanned. “Right.”

“The smartest man in Gotham still needs an income,” Lucius said. 

“While I appreciate the attempt at flattery, I have some money put away,” Edward countered. 

“Enough to cover you for the next ten years?” Lucius asked. “And what are you going to do with your time?”

“Well, ruining Jim’s life was first on the list,” Edward snarled, clenching his hand into a fist. 

“That won’t help Oswald,” Lucius cautioned. Edward sighed.

“No, you’re right,” Edward said. He perked up a bit. “What kind of job did you have in mind?”

***

Their first visitation was supervised, but Lucius managed to swing it so that he could act as a third party. Edward was jumpy in the prison, every guard seeming to startle him just as much as the last. Lucius knew Arkham was no vacation, but Edward’s reactions were entirely inappropriate for someone with a healthy fear of such places. He bounced on his feet at each checkpoint, until they were finally left alone in a room and told to wait for the prisoner. 

Oswald was let inside the room, and Lucius found himself having to grab Edward’s shoulder and force him to sit as the guard turned him around and undid his handcuffs. Once the door was shut, nothing could have stopped him. 

“ _Oswald!_ ” Edward rushed him, pulling the other man into his arms. Lucius saw his shoulders shaking, Oswald’s hands roving over his back. 

“I missed you,” Oswald said, fingers clutching the fabric of Edward’s suit. “God, you smell amazing.” Edward giggled, pulling back in order to kiss him. Lucius looked away, giving them what privacy he could as the sounds of their lips meeting in deep, passionate kisses reached his ears.

“Mr. Fox,” Oswald said, drawing his attention to them. Edward was at his side, arms wrapped around his shoulders as Oswald’s were around his waist. “I understand I have you to thank for arranging this so quickly and so… privately.”

“It was the best I could do,” Lucius said. “You should be granted conjugal visits soon if you don’t get into any trouble.”

“Systems like these have a habit of putting me in trouble,” Oswald said. “Though I hope to avoid that.”

“You’ll find a way,” Edward said. “I’ll be able to talk to you every day if you can’t, and then _I’ll_ find a way.”

They spent the rest of the time catching up, but Lucius got the sense that he was preventing them from discussing everything they would have chatted about in private. There was no such thing as privacy in prison, of course. 

***

For nine years, Edward was WayneTech’s shining star. He had the mind, the skill, the ingenuity. Then everything seemed to fall apart. With one year left in Oswald’s sentence, Edward had donned the green once again and sent the city into chaos. He’d poisoned the water supply, turned the city into a massive game of deadly cat and mouse, and held the population captive with his riddles. Then when his game was over, he’d quietly turned himself in.

“Why, Mr. Nygma?” the judge had asked him, looking down at him over her glasses. 

“It just made sense,” Edward had replied, his grin wide and utterly vacant of emotion. 

It wasn’t until Cobblepot was released that Lucius began to get a hint of what he really might have been after. Within a week, Edward was also free. Released, after a year of confinement with no incidents. Lucius knew this, because he’d kept tabs on Edward all that time. 

Years prior, rumors had reached the GCPD and the tabloids of an unknown criminal kingpin who controlled Gotham remotely. There was a vast network of hierarchies, and only one man at the top who ever spoke to the boss. Suspicion had been directed first at the old crime families. The police had no leads, and no one ever broke. It seemed the criminals under this mysterious figure’s umbrella feared Blackgate no longer. But as the investigation reached its peak, targeting Oswald as the head and questioning Edward as the liaison, he had suddenly gone mad and landed in Arkham. And yet the rumor was largely the same. The GCPD had moved on, deeming him too chaotic and unstable to have been the mastermind behind such a vast and well-connected empire.

Looking back, he could see that it had been a ploy. A tactic to throw the GCPD off their scent. Edward was more than capable of keeping order for Oswald and living a double life at WayneTech. And he was dedicated enough to land himself in Arkham to protect that secret. 

When Oswald Cobblepot left Blackgate, he returned to his family home. He purchased real estate in Gotham with money he wasn’t supposed to have. He was investigated for paying to get Edward out of Arkham, but there was no trace of underhandedness anywhere. For all intents and purposes, Edward’s shiny new certificate of sanity was the real deal. Of course, as his husband, Oswald couldn’t be forced to talk. 

Lucius wondered where he’d gone wrong. Edward had been stable, he’d been waiting all that time—

No. He’d been plotting all that time. 

The network Penguin likely controlled was unshakable. Prison had actually been good for his wealth, for his assets. With Edward operating on the outside, Oswald had been able to continue pulling strings. And in a new Gotham where all of his rivals were gone, Oswald once again controlled nearly all of the criminal activity.

Of course, he’d learned from the past. There was nothing so overt as the licenses of the Pax Penguina era. But Penguin had his own system of unlawful enforcement, better paid and better armed than the GCPD. It was their task to ensure that no crime went without the Penguin getting his cut. He was in drugs, prostitution, gambling. Every gang was his gang. And when gangs stopped fighting one another, they prospered. By the time he’d left prison, his control was so complete that they didn’t even have a hope of getting him on something as simple as tax evasion. 

And Edward had done it all, right under his nose. He’d enjoyed his job, Lucius had seen that. He’d loved his work. And yet he’d clocked out every day and continued on to do Oswald’s bidding, solidifying him as the unchallenged ruler of the underworld.

He hadn’t left even a stitch of evidence. Only coincidence. Lucius thought back to a conversation he’d overheard, a little over a year ago, Edward clearly talking to Oswald over the phone in the breakroom.

_“It’s only a year apart,” Edward had said. “One year, and you’re a free bird. Yes. I’ll miss you too. But we can write. I love you. Tomorrow. That’s the last time.” He’d giggled._

_“Well, you’d better make it count, then. I might get lonely for my husband and need something to keep me going… Oh? Tell me what you’ll do to me.”_

Lucius had blushed and run, realizing he was definitely intruding on the beginnings of phone sex. But looking back, he’d missed something crucial. Edward had known in advance that they wouldn’t see one another for that last year. He’d planned his bout of insanity, meaning that it hadn’t been insanity at all. The conversation he’d overheard was all hearsay, though. And now, Penguin was positioned to be more powerful than ever before.

***

He’d gone to the opening of he Iceberg Longue, and he had not been disappointed. It was extravagant, needlessly so. It had to be worth a fortune. Oswald was surrounded by men in expensive suits at a high table, men who parted the moment Edward appeared, silver accents glimmering under the white light. He placed himself in Oswald’s lap, whispering into his ear. Oswald snapped his fingers and the table dispersed, leaving them alone. He approached them cautiously. 

“Your anniversary passed recently,” Lucius said, “Congratulations.”

“I was still in Blackgate at the time,” Oswald said, adjusting his top hat. 

“And I was in Arkham,” Edward added.

“But we managed to get letters to each other,” Oswald said. 

“And you sent me a cupcake,” Edward added. “It was delightful.”

“You know how it is,” Oswald said. “A sentence begins at sentencing, and all. I’m hoping fifteen won’t be as cruel as ten, five, and one were to us.”

“The first was the hardest,” Edward said, sounding forlorn. “It was a holiday, and I wasn’t allowed to see you.”

“I remember,” Lucius said. He’d taken Edward out to dinner, hoping to get his mind off it.

“I appreciate all that you’ve done for us,” Oswald said. “Especially for Edward, in my absence.” That was a funny way of putting it.

“You should have been given a fresh start like the rest of the city,” Lucius said. “I’ll always believe that.”

“Well,” Oswald said, clapping his hands together. “If there’s anything you need, _anything_ at all, I believe I owe you a few favors.” 

“Oh, that won’t be necessary—”

“Foxy,” Edward interrupted. “Take the offer.” Lucius froze in place, realizing that this was not an offer he was allowed to refuse. 

“Thank you, Mr. Cobblepot,” Lucius said. Oswald smiled widely, and the pair chuckled, clearly pleased with his decision.

“Excellent, excellent,” Oswald said. “It’s always been my pleasure to offer favors to my friends.”

“I should get going,” Lucius said, feeling an odd sense of panic begin to form. 

“Don’t be a stranger, Foxy,” Edward said, flashing his teeth. “You’ve been a true friend, and _so_ helpful.” Lucius nodded, and promised nothing.

As he left the building, it did not escape him that he may very well have just made a deal with a devil of his own making.

**Author's Note:**

> The moral of the story is that they would have been less motivated to get power and get revenge if Jim had just allowed them to be sappy and in love and free. I also wanted to put Lucius into the same shoes that Jim once was in, somehow beholden to these criminals because he accidentally allowed themselves to build up stronger than ever through an act of mercy. In this AU, Edward and Oswald saw each other all the time and eventually had the entire prison under control, complete with a fancy king bed they had delivered into a private room for their personal use during conjugal visits. Not that Lucius knew about that, of course. And I only left Ed in Arkham long enough for his hair to grow out that far and no longer. The ten years were perfectly fine, Oswald's only limitation was that he couldn't leave the prison. The End.
> 
> Oh, and please comment.


End file.
